Whatever Next?
by Countess of Cobert
Summary: A series of unconnected one-shots finishing Cobert scenes from series 4. Each will have a rating and a note about which episode and scene it fits in.
1. Chapter 1

Rating: Highish T.

Episode 3-Extended scene from the conversation in which Cora sits on the chaise longue, and Robert totally ignores her. Enjoy!

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Cora climbs with vague annoyance but perfect grace from her perch upon the chaise longue and heads for the bed Robert has just occupied. Why, oh why, when's she was laid so delicately upon the seat did he not come and kiss me, she wonders, it used to be his first thought when he saw me reclined in such a way. Perhaps Dame Nellie distracted him, she muses.

"It helped that as well as you and Dame Nellie having the similar interest of wine, she was beautiful." Robert watches as she walks in a determined fashion towards the bed, so far, so good he thinks. He knows she is angry that he did not make a move on her straight away and that will mean much delight for him, it's no lie that he always enjoys teasing her. Equally he finds her even more amourous than usual when she doesn't get what she wants, and he knows she will do anything to get it, for her next move Robert is certain she's going to interrogate him. As she pulls the covers up over her legs, he reaches forward and removes a stray curl of hair tucking it behind her ear. He stares into her twinkling eyes and removes his hand, knowing that the action has no doubt quickened her heart slightly.

"Perhaps she was. But I didn't notice. You see I only see beauty when it comes in the form of my gorgeous wife." Cora's cheeks grow hot, damn she mutters, he's seen right through me and now has me soaking up his every word. She knows now there's nothing she can do, she will reach the outcome she desires most, by dissolving her annoyance and playing with him.

"Don't make me blush."

"I like it when you blush. The colour in your cheeks makes you even more gorgeous then usual." Robert, Cora knows is a strange man with his feelings, he keeps them all curled up inside and then sometimes, like tonight they all coming bursting through the flood gates. She rolls her eyes at his obvious seduction techniques but leans over and kisses him. He gives her what she wants for a few moments, kissing her deeply and allowing her tongue to trace patterns with his, when her hands reach forward and undo a button on his shirt he knows he has to stop now or he'll be gone, quite gone. When he pulls away he's unsurprised that she keeps her hands where they were, she runs her hands in excessively tempting circles over his chest and every so often undoes another button, he tries to ignore the delightful sensations and continue distracting her. "In fact, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever met a woman more beautiful than you, I don't think such a woman exists."

She resists the urge to role her eyes and allows him to pull her by the waist to lie flush against him. She captures his lips before he can stop her, and begins where they left off a moment ago. She works more quickly this time, determined to ensnarl him. His shirt is gone in seconds and she feels him tug at her nightdress, a little too hard if she's honest. When it had arrived she had looked worrying at the flimsiness of the garment. Her dressmaker had given Cora excessively odd looks when it came to the amounts of nightwear she seemed to go through. She traces her hands over his torso, relishing in the feel of his chest hair tickling her fingers. Just to tease him, annoy him, she breaks her lips from his, and rolling away from him, her hand outstretched in front of her keeping him away she looks him over, trying to ignore the deep, desire filled dark orbs his eyes have become.

"You are so handsome, and you don't even now it. The number of women that drop hints to me at various social things I attend about whether I think you might be interesting in them, over the years I've lost count." Robert chuckles at her obvious over exaggeration, taking the hand she placed on his chest and places kisses all the way up it. When he reaches her shoulder and then her neck he feels her relax beside him, a small sigh of pleasure whistling through her lips.

"And what do you tell these women?"

"Just that I believe you to have a lady already." He chuckles against her skin, only causing Cora to sigh again, she's well aware she's quickly losing control of herself.

"You are so modest." She ignores the compliment as her thoughts are taken by the hand that's pulled her nightgown to her waist, it now slips slowly underneath and she feels him tug at her undergarments before abandoning them to massage her breasts. "You know, you being so accepting of my touches makes it so easy for me to please you." His lips kiss patterns on her neck and she's aware that the hot circles drift closer and closer to her lips.

"What about you? My touch undoes you as well. Everyone thinks you're as stone faced as Mary, but I know that's not true. You're a true romantic when you feel like it. I'm just one of the few that knows." He pauses at her lips and looks into her twinkling eyes. His hands still on her body and he rolls her slowly to lie on her back, straddling over her, he leans to capture her lips.

"Not one of the few. The only one Cora. Always my only one."


	2. Chapter 2

Rating: K

After episode 8 following the moment Robert finds out Edith is going to Switzerland, I imagine.

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"Robert, there is nothing sinister about Rosamund wishing to take Edith on a visit to Switzerland with her. Edith's been spending so much time there since she's always in London, and your sister has no children of her own to dote on." Cora doesn't let herself so much as let the thought escape the box in the back of her mind that says Robert might be right. She grants the timing is a little weird but it will be good for Edith, she's aware of the fact the girl has been distraught since Mr Gregson went missing and she also knows that her and Robert perhaps don't pay quite enough attention to their Edith.

"I'm just saying are you sure this isn't about Gregson again?" Her anger and her tiredness mount. Robert seems to have forgotten while he's been galavanting around America how much work she was left to do. And since his return she hasn't exactly got much sleep. She snaps the lamp off.

"Why would it be? He's lost in Germany, that's the long and the short of it." That Cora doesn't believe that is hardly a necessary point to this argument.

"So, you think she's over him? Because I don't."

"Robert, why are you saying all this now when you never liked him, or saw that Edith had fallen for him in the first place. Besides she would have made you send a detective to Germany if she really loved the man."

"Not necessarily. The company have detectives over there, she thought that was enough. I'm convinced she loved him. I've been missing for a few weeks and she looks a lot worse than when I left." Cora is aware their voices are rising but she's the adrenaline racing in her veins stops her from thinking clearly and lower her voice.

"She's just tired, she's been working flat out like the rest of us since you went away and abandoned the whole running of the house to us."

"That's unfair Cora, I went to America for _you_ in case you'd forgotten. I sometimes wonder if you appreciate anything I do for you. I give you a home, food, money-" he stops as he watches her turn away from him and slide beneath the covers. Cora can feel the tears pricking in her eyes and she tries her best to steady them. She's not surprised Robert takes no notice and just turns out his light, she annoyed him, he wasn't going to give her his attention now. When he does so she lets the tears fall freely, but quickly it becomes too much and she can hear her own sniffles and sobs. A moment on two later when her shoulders shake with her tears and her mind swims with his words for the thousandth time she feels his hand on the back, she shrugs it off. Why does she want a man who thinks she doesn't appreciate him touching her? "Cora, please I was angry. I don't mean it."

"It sounded like you did." She feels his hand weave into her plait and his lips touch her neck. The touches warm her but she ignores it, desperate to make him realise that what he said hurt. "Darling, that's not going to make it any better." She knows her slowing tears and the stillness of her shoulders deceive her though. His touch always makes her better.

"When I was in America Harold told me something I didn't know about you." Cora's interest pikes, no doubt exactly what Robert wanted. Her mind begins to reel, what had her brother been saying? "He said that you'd received an offer of marriage from that Prince who'd courted you." Cora gulps, she'd never told Robert that, always keen to keep it from him, particularly at the time, mainly because even she wasn't sure in her own mind whether she was completely sane to turn him down for Robert.

"Yes, he did. I never told you because I didn't want to alarm you, besides, I didn't want to marry him."

"Why not?" Cora knows her resolve to keep the cold shoulders is vastly slipping from her reach. "He had a never ending pit of money, I did not. He could give you everything you could ever want, I could not. He was not a fortune hunter, I was. He has goodness knows how may houses and a palace, I have a draughty house in Yorkshire." She turns around to face him, forgetting her charade from earlier.

"No, your right. In your mind I went for all the wrong things. I went for the man and not the money. You're telling me the things my mother was always thinking rather than looking at this the way my father persuaded me to. I have no idea if my father had realised I was in love with you, I think in hindsight he probably had. But anyway, I remember him coming to me and telling me what he thought on marriage. I remember the words even today they were so powerful and emotive. He said 'Cora, I want a good man for you, one that could grow to love you as a proper husband should. I am not saying the Prince would not. But is that what you want, a life in the eyes of a nation that isn't even yours? Cora, promise me, you'll choose the man that ignites in you every emotion you currently know. Choose the man who could make you laugh out loud at a funeral. Choose the man you'd worry about the most if he went away. Choose the man who'll laugh at you jokes, and cry when you do. Choose the man, who when you agree to marry him, will take you in his arms and kiss you. Choose the man whose proposal you can almost remember word for word. Choose the man who will be the last thought in your head before you close your eyes at night, that's every night Cora, every night for the rest of your life, regardless of whether you marry him.'" She wipes the tears from her cheeks as memories of her father cloud her thoughts. She looks at Robert, who has similar tears on his cheeks.

"I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything, I was explaining why I chose you rather than the Prince. And that was why, you fulfilled all those things, and many more." Robert just looks down at her. Staring at nothing, she's well aware he's over thinking it, she did that the first time she heard the words. All her father had said could be summed up in one expression, 'go with your instinct.' She strokes his face and wipes the tears slowly from his cheeks. "I don't suppose you'd kiss me? An apology for earlier?"

"Yes, of course. I'm sorry for that and my distraction just then, I was just-" she cuts him off with her lips, desperate to show him that in all the time that's passed she hasn't regretted the decision she made, not once.


	3. Chapter 3

Rating: T- quite high I'd say. If your not a fan of things bordering on smut, you might want to skip this one!

This one is set after episode 8 at some point. Thanks for all the lovely reviews, each one means an awful lot.

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Cora still couldn't quite believe that Robert was home. Finally home. How long had she waited? Six weeks, six weeks that had felt like a lifetime with all that had been going on. Although they had spent a little of the afternoon passionately kissing in Cora's bedroom, having escaped the garden party as soon as possible, their time and desires had been cut short by Robert's desire to see the rest of his family and visit the pigs causing him to give her a reminder that: 'we have all night, but I can't really spend the night with my family, or the pigs.' Cora had reluctantly given in, and she was now a little foxed as to how Robert could be determined to carry on a conversation about Harold and all that had happened in America, despite the fact she was wearing her new nightgown.

Robert hoped Cora didn't notice how openly he was staring at her as he sat in the chair watching her cream her hands at her dressing table. She'd donned an item of clothing that Robert had never seen before. It was a very short, almost see through, piece of fabric in a creamy colour as her nightdresses usually were, with a neckline Robert would never want to think his daughters might wear for their husbands. The sleeves were non-existent, replaced with straps. He was talking of Harold purely to give her a chance to finish creaming her hands, anything to distract him from the need to pick her up and sit her on the dressing table or press her to a wall, but her usual quick routine seemed to be taking her hours. In fact, she had squeezed more cream from the container twice already.

"I don't think I was any help at all. It was nice having a little male company though. I don't get much here." Seeing the turn of her expression, and the finishing of her creaming routine Robert continues, not quite sure if they're quite young enough for the heated couplings swirling in his mind. "Not that I mind being surrounded by beautiful women and my gorgeous wife." She stands and Robert's jaw drops, he quickly closes it. The gown is much shorter than he even realised and far more see through. Cora stands for the sole purpose of trying to get his attention she's relieved when she sees his jaw drop, although she pretends not to notice. She smiles to herself and walks towards the bed stopping to lean against the bed post, giving him a full view of her body.

"I don't imagine my brother's changed much from what you remembered. Still as hopeless and irritating as ever." She smiles discreetly when he stand and removes his gown, laying it over the chair behind him.

"I could never say irritating, he's your brother and-"

"How about we forget my brother, I had a far more exciting way to spend the evening planned." Yes, Robert muses, I'd noticed. He steps towards her and wrapping his arms around her waist he begins suckling at her neck. She immediately wraps her arms around his shoulders and let's him kiss her. His lips devour all the skin of her upper body that he has before him, which is plenty more than usual and he smiles against her every time he manages to get her to moan or whimper. This is what he wants, not a hurried coupling, but a slow loved filled one, where he can show her just how much he's missed her. He catches the hem of her gown and pools it at her waist between them, he shivers as his hand discovers she wears nothing beneath.

"Oh, Robert, darling. I've missed you. I've missed this." Robert chuckles at how worked up she already is and sensing the fact she's barely able to stand he lifts her and rests her against the bedpost, lifting her legs to sit on his waist. Cora tires desperately to make her thoughts and her body work together. She's aware that she wears almost nothing and yet Robert stands before her still fully dressed, but for the life of her she can't get her hands to work. The job becomes still harder when she feels his hands rub against her where she is already warm and slippery, she moans and pulls at his hair when he slips a finger inside her. He doesn't have to move his fingers for very long inside her before he feels her walls pulse around his finger. As she reaches her climax she grabs randomly at his shirt and before either of them quite comprehends what's happened it lies open, buttons scattered on the floor.

He lifts her to the bed before removing his torn shirt and the rest of his garments. When he straddles her a moment later, he abandons his idea of slow gentle love, there's time for that later, when he sees the look in her eyes and feels the firmness of his arousal both proving neither of them will last. He kisses her gently on the lips as he enters her. Neither of them really comprehend the next few minutes, they both climax before they really think they've started. She rubs her fingers absentmindedly over his chest as he lays sated beside her a few moments later.

"I really did miss you. So very much."

"Not as much as I've missed you."

"I doubt that very much."

"Really? But you've had Downton and everything that's familiar to you all around. I've been in a foreign country with your brother for company."

"You win." She mumbles her reply as she leans for his lips, desperate to feel his tongue swirling in her mouth again. He chuckles, moving his head away.

"I've never known you give up so easily. Usually you tease me until I fall asleep."

"I'm too desperate for you to kiss me again to try and tease you." Their lips meet again in a heated kiss, but this time it's slower, slightly more loving, not the rushed heated need of a moments before.


	4. Chapter 4

Rating: K+

Set a few nights after Robert's return from American. Just hopeless fluff I'm afraid and more of a drabble than a one shot. Enjoy! Oh, and prompts are welcome. I'm working on one for AllAboutTheAbbey at the moment, but please message me any for series 4!

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Robert looks around at the room around him, all the lights are off, a faint shine of moonlight comes through the window and snatches through a gap in the curtains. This light is enough to light the figure beside him. The naked figure beside him. He had been back four days and still Cora seemed obsessed with ripping his clothes off the moment he steped into the room, he thought it might have calmed down after a couple of nights, but no. She really had missed him, obviously. He gently leans over, and adjusting his position lightly kisses her on the cheek.

"Looking at the state of this room anyone would think we were either newlywed or this was our first night together since I came back from America." Cora sits up a little at his whispered announcement against her skin before she takes a look around the room, clothes are scattered everywhere and the bedsheets are all on the floor except the one sheet draped over Robert's lower leg, she blushes.

"It's not my fault you're so irresistible or that you can't keep your hands off of me."

"You can't keep your hands off of me either."

"I could if I wanted to. It would just take far too much self control, and if I'm honest, I'd rather keep my hands on you."

"I'd noticed. But if I'm quite honest I do rather enjoy having a wife who can't keep her hands off me, particularly when I like having my hands on her." She moves to swat his chest, laughing but he, anticipating the reaction leans backwards, the result being she hits herself in the shoulder, he peels into laughter at which she frowns. Catching her facial expression only makes him laugh more. "Oh...dear, I've missed you, even more than I thought I would."

"Are you saying you didn't think you'd miss me that much?" She knows a nasty frown has formed on her face, but then, who can blame her? Robert had just announced he didn't think he was going to miss her.

"No, I knew I was going to miss you. I just overlooked the little things that I take for granted when I'm here, like that! Priceless. Equally, I'd overlooked how often conversation would turn to you while I was in America. You, are pretty much the only thing I have in common with your brother and mother. I ended up sitting in conversations with them thinking about how you might have reacted to some piece of news I was told, or some joke one of them made. I missed the way you tease me, both with words and your eyes from across rooms. I missed how you fidget before you fall asleep, something that you know full well gets on my nerves occasionally at home. It was the little things. I felt isolated and alone. Not only that but it struck me how many questions your brother and even your mother asked about you, so many things they didn't know. It was when I told them the answers to these questions, my mind miles away thinking of your kisses or your laughs that I realised, that really I'm your family. The girls have grown up and are living their own lives now, even if they are still here. And your family, they abandoned you in a foreign country years ago, I'm all you have. I'm the only person you've truly let in. Being without you gave me a view of a different life. I'd seen want a different marriage could have been like when we visited Shrimpy, but America showed me life without you. With nothing, because that's what my life is without you."

Water obscures her vision and she stares at the blurry man in front of her. Did Robert, her Robert really just say all those things? She doesn't say anything but as the clouds slide from her vision she reaches forward and massages her hands over his chest before curling them into his hair she loves so much. Before she thinks the next thought she's done it and her tongue insistently presses at his lips, anything to make them budge. It's impossible to put into words what she feels, this, she knows is the only way she will manage to show him what she wishes to express after his declaration.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: this one was asked for by AllAboutTheAbbey, so I hope you like it!

M rated

Set after the scene where Cora and Thomas talk in the hall and then Robert calls Cora into the library to 'talk' about something, another Cobert scene we never see the end of! This is an extra update so there will be another one as usual tomorrow.

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"Cora is that you? Could I ask you something?" She turns her attention away from Thomas to her handsome husband appearing in the doorway, who disappears quickly back into the librar. She looks one last time at Mr Barrow as she tries to decide if what he says is true, could Anna have really ruined her blouse? She steps into the library and straightens her face in the hope of removing the furrows from her forehead.

"What is it you wanted me to look at darling?"

"This, it's a letter from Lord Gillingham, he asks if he can pay me a visit to look at the way we are running the estate for his own guidance." She glances at the letter he thrusts into her hands and a thought occurs to her.

"I think you should. But better still, wait a while until the will of Matthew's is sorted and then Mary can talk him through some of the aspects."

"Why?" His intention at getting Cora into the library was not, as it so happened, to have a discussion about Gillingham. He had a far better idea planned but alas the woman had a way of distracting him from even his best laid plans. As she twirls to face him, letter still in hand he half heartedly keeps track of what she says as he admires the curves of her body that he can only slightly see in the purple ensemble she wears.

"Think about it Robert, Tony Gillingham would be a good match for Mary. We can invite him to the house party next month and he can stay an extra few days."

"So you're matchmaking again?" She doesn't have a chance to reply as he wraps his arms around her waist pushing her towards the desk. She feels his hands rub at her waist in firm circles and she stares in disorientated manner at his chest. "Cora." He mumbles against her collarbone in a tone Cora recognises all to well and she knows her cheeks warm. His hand slides down the back of her thigh as her back presses against the table and it's at this moment that Cora gasps. She'd thought he was just being cheeky and taking advantage of the empty room for a few minutes but it appeared he had a far more serious intention.

"Robert darling, perhaps..." He doesn't wait for her to answer as his lips lift from her collar bone to her waiting ones his hands lifting her confused body onto the desk. Her mouth tastes of coffee, no doubt from her breakfast and his tongue laps at hers fiercely. Her fingers curl into his hair and he smiles against her lips, it seemed she'd succumbed to him.

She trails her fingers into his hair. Her concern for them being found long gone, her thoughts only on the taste of his tongue on hers and the feel of his hands sliding slowly up her legs, her lilac dress pooling on her lap. Her hands cup his face and she tilts her head desperate to feel his tongue swirl deeper in her mouth. She loses her balance as he lifts her legs to sit around his waist and her hands fall back behind her, she pushes some pieces of paper and other such items away as Robert's lips descend upon her neck, he suckles at her skin and she feels herself unravel as a heat builds inside of her threatening to tip her over the edge.

"Robert, darling, I really think..." His hand delves beneath her blouse and she begins to wonder for how long he'd been waiting for her this morning. She knew the will of Matthew's had upset him, she was well aware he didn't want to share power with Mary and it seemed he wished to be in control of at least something.

Robert ignores Cora's plea to retire somewhere more sensible. She was here now, all his. It had been some time since they'd messed around anywhere other than her bedroom during the day. Ever since Matthew had died there had been a gloom over the house and it seemed wrong to enjoy ones self when Mary was suffering so. But, things had changed, Mary was reappearing slowly and she was now entitled to half the estate, why shouldn't he take the liberty of making love to his wife downstairs again? Robert is fully surprised, mainly due to her desire to move from the desk a moment before, when Cora moves to the edge of the mahogany desk to assist him in the quest to remove her undergarments. Glancing up from her gorgeous lips that he had been devouring for the last few moments he notices the vast amount of clutter upon the desk, no doubt from his unproductive morning-the only thing he'd done was write a list of Cora's perfections before sketching her, with this surveillance he lifts her from the hard wood to sit around his waist before walking carefully to the settee where he falls down. Cora laughs, but she sits straddling him as he wished, and her lips crash against his once more.

She can't help but indulge his fantasies particularly when they are ones that she enjoys as well. She unfastens his trousers as his hands make a quest beneath her blouse. And she hears his breath catch as she runs her nails over his arousal. When she lowers herself onto him a moment later, she grasps the settee either side of his head to steady herself as she begins to move above him. She feels his moans of approval vibrate along her skin from where his lips press against her collarbone in a desperate attempt to muffle the sound of his pleasure. Cora, not having the liberty of anything to decrease the volume of her ecstasy bites her lip.

When she loses herself totally and convulses around him, a sharp stab on her skin tells her that Robert is about to follow and she doesn't doubt the bite will leave a bruise.

"Cora...my darling." The words are clear even when spoken to the jut in her collarbone where his tongue still flicks with some enthusiasm. She kisses his neck as their bodies adjust.

"Does that satisfy you my dear?" She still sits across his lap, her cheeks tinged with the exertion and it is that image that he really loves. The image of his beautiful Cora with her eyes sparkling and her skin flushed, her usually perfect coiffure a little frayed at the edges.

"Yes, very much so."

"Good. Because I believe I have been on your mind a great deal this morning."

"I have you on my mind every morning. What man wouldn't when his wife is as beautiful as you?" He watches with satisfaction as she blushes before burying her face in the crook of his neck.

"You're quite the flatterer my love. And very good at distracting me. But before we get too carried away on that I'd like to return to the sketch of me I found upon your desk earlier." He blushes a little as he remembers the unproductive morning he had. He opened two letters only to be taken over with the desire to see Cora.

"Yes well. My correspondence was boring. So I amused myself by drawing my stunning lady, who was still in bed. Probably with her hair all ruffled looking even more adorable than usual."

"You are one naughty man Robert Joseph Crawley." She presses a kiss to his neck and stands from his lap, adjusting her skirt as she does so.

"And you love me?" He's stood as well and has now taken her waist between his hands holding her firmly before him, his deep blue eyes delving into the depths of hers.

"Yes. Very much." She tangles her fingers in the hair at the back of his neck and presses a chaste kiss to his lips.

"Me too." He covers her lips with his as he pulls her flush against him. His tongue tangles with hers and neither of them hear the precise rhythmic vibration of the Dowager Countess' stick as she crosses the hall and enters the library.

"And here I was in my old age thinking that the two of you had finally seen sense and had stopped bringing your marital bed to the library." They turn at the sharp bark of the wise lady to meet her steely gaze.

"Mama, I..."

"I don't want to hear it Robert. I know what you were doing, one should always cover ones tracks you know. That being the case is I'd greatly appreciate you re-fastening your trousers and removing your wife's lip colour from your neck before I speak with you." Cora looks the floor as a deep blush masks her cheeks. "As for you," she points her stick at Cora, "collect your undergarments from his desk and although that's a very pretty blush Lady Grantham I don't think I need to remind you that you should have your husband under control by now."

"It is a very pretty blush Mama, you are quite correct." Robert's voice makes Cora lift her eyes from the points of her shoes that she had been studying for the last minute. She finds him nearer than she thought as he leans over her and presses a warm kiss to her cheek. "I love it almost as much as I love the lady that wears it."


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Rated K+

This one was requested by TheCountessAndTheEnglishLord. Set at the garden party/straight after it finishes. The Rose garden and the descriptions of the hedges are taken from my trip to Highclere last Summer.

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America felt like months ago, the fact he'd only arrived back in Liverpool yesterday was a mute point. The moment the Abbey had stolen into his vision and his girls had raced across the lawn to him he'd felt more at home. But it wasn't the home he was craving. In America he'd missed one person more than all the others put together. Cora had stolen into his thoughts and visions day and night, her eyes had danced before his, her dark curls had weaved through his fingers. And there she had been the sunlight behind her, her hat tilted to the side, her blue dress swishing at her ankles; all those things he'd eventually noticed but the moment she'd taken his attention it had been merely her face that he'd studied, her eyes, her lips. He'd imagined on the crossing home all the places he might find his wife upon his return, sitting at her desk, in the nursery, and each version of events had ended in the same way: a chaste kiss resulting in sensations he'd been missing out on for weeks. Sensations he craved. The feelings of Cora, his true home. He kissed her then but on the crowded lawn that was the only contact he was destined to get. He craved more but Cora had worked hard, very hard and it wasn't fair to drag her away from the wonderful party just to ease his desire, so he'd wandered through the rose garden and out the other side and now stood staring at the untamed woodland a little way off his fingers tapping in unmelodic rhythms against his champagne glass; a plan forming in his mind.

It was stood like this that Cora had found him. After watching him out the corner of her eye since his arrival she'd finally managed to steal away from the others after Robert's sweet toast to her. She knew full well he'd been avoiding her, at first it had confused her, but after some thought she knew that it was no doubt in an effort to keep from embarrassing them both. She didn't doubt that if he felt anything like her he was in desperate need of her touch and her love. The first week or so had been bearable for her with the grandchildren and various tasks to keep her occupied but in the last two weeks, as Robert's letters had seized to arrived she'd been filled with a need to have him near. In the last week she'd spent every night with his pillow clutched in her arms like a child with a stuffed toy. But the sensation hadn't helped much, it had only caused her to wake in the night with his cologne burning at her nostrils and her mind swimming with images of his face; the bright blue eyes and the smouldering look they have when he makes love to her. The feel of his skin against hers and the touch of his lips had all ricocheted in her mind at an uncontrollable rate. She stands by the hedge, that has been carved through in a perfect arch by the gardener allowing access from the rose garden to the wilderness beyond, and studies his muscular form; he is so very tall and handsome. She knows he's deep in thought by the way the sound of tapping echoes in the still air and his head is tilted up to the vast sky. She walks up behind him careful not to make a sound. She slips her arms around his waist, pinching his stomach when they reach his front. She laughs as he starts.

"Cora, don't do that, you scared me." She giggles again and he turns in her arms.

"But you liked it. I can tell by the sparkle in your eyes." She reaches up and weaves her fingers into his curls. He feels the heat he'd been trying to keep at bay build inside him as her tongue jousts with hers. Adrenaline races in his blood stream and the champagne glass slips from his fingers which prefer the soft fabric of her dress to it's hard stem. After a few moments he's aware of Cora's hands pushing his jacket from his shoulders, he lets it fall before he breaks their connection. She pouts at him and tries to urge his mouth back to hers but he shakes his head and instead places a gentle kiss on her nose. He scoops up the discarded jacket and moving to a patch of open lawn he lays it flat, gesturing for her to sit.

As Cora flops down onto his jacket she can't help but search his eyes as to some explanation to their situation. What is he up to? She had thought she had him sussed, in need of physical attraction but it appeared not, or at least he was focused on something else. He stands for a few moment watching her and Cora feels self conscious, why on earth is he studying me so intently?

He keeps his gaze fixed on her as she positions herself on his jacket, her long legs stretched before her and her face tilted to catch the most of the early evening sun. With some reluctance he lowers himself to the grass by her side, positioning an arm behind her. There is a sudden breeze and her lavender scent washes over him, threatening to ruin his composure. Her skin covers with goose flesh and he shuffles nearer, wrapping his arms around her. Her head falls onto his shoulder and her lips press a kiss to the sensitive spot below his ear.

"Robert?" As his arms snake around her waist she can't help but take the opportunity to try and bring him back to their heated kiss from moments before.

"Yes my darling."

"What are we doing?"

"Currently we are sitting on my jacket on the lawn, my arms around your beautiful body." The twinkle in his eyes is unmistakeable and she knows he is keeping something from her. She presses a more insistent kiss against his neck as her hand wanders to the buttons on his shirt. She feels him shiver a little at her touch before he slowly peels her hand from his chest and holds it in his, smoothing the pad of his thumb over her knuckles.

"Lady Grantham I warn you, don't play games. I'm not going to tell you what is happening and you won't break me." He drops a kiss to her hand as he completes his warning, sliding his tongue slowly around her knuckle. He knows full well she will try and tease the answer out of him but he absolutely refuses to give in, he wants to surprise her.

She growls inwardly and lets a huff escape her lips at his threat. She knows he's serious but the question is whether she should take a chance and try to break him.

"I'll take a chance." He raises his eyebrows at her unsurprising statement and nips at her ear.

"Very well." Cora wishes he would stop dropping kisses all over her body. First her hand and now her ear, she was never going to be able to tease the information out of him if she was permanently trying to defend herself against his attacks upon her resolve. She sits upright, breaking her body contact with him and takes of her hat before letting her hair from its pins. It tumbles to her shoulders and she keeps her eyes trained on his. Once her hair is all free she unbuckles her shoes and tosses them to one side, stretching her toes at the freedom.

Robert watches her unpin her hair with fascination, he always had liked it when it fell down her back and onto her shoulders. The beauty of his wife with her hair down still effects him now and as she sits before him he feels the burning he'd felt earlier begin to resurface but a glance at the hillside tells him it won't be long before his plan will be complete. He watches with amusement as she removes her shoes and wiggles her toes like a school girl.

She is surprised her endeavours so far have resulted in no reaction from her husband so she sidles closer to him again and runs her hands through his hair. His hands reach for her curls and she lets him run them through her locks. When he seems suitably distracted she brings her lips to his and pushes her tongue between them. She feels his hands still in her hair as his tongue flicks against her intrusion in vicious swirls. She knows she's cracking him when he gives up all hope of beating her and lets her ease him to lie with his back upon the ground. She fails to notice the twinkle in his eye as she gets lost in his kiss.

Robert lets her win for a moment as he allows himself to be pressed to the ground. His tie is undone with practiced precision and she even undoes the top two buttons of his shirt, her hands swirling as fast as her tongue.

"I told you I would get it out of you." Her words are spoken between kisses as she trails a path down his neck. He pretends to acquiesce and moans softly against her cheek.

"What do you want to know my darling one?"

"What it is you've got up your sleeve." She moves from her position of lying beside him to straddle him when his hands grab her waist and she hears only her own squeals and pleas for him to stop as his fingers attack her waist. When he finally seizes tickling her he sits straddling her and her piercing dark eyes mean it takes a moment for him to surpress the desire locked inside of him.

"I told you not to try and find out, did I not my love?" She nods like a child as his mouth moves towards hers with each word he speaks. "And did I not say you would be punished?" She nods again and his lips brush hers. "I missed you. You know that?"

"Um. I missed you too my darling." He can sense a menacing look in her eyes and he's not surprised when her hands tangle into his hair as she tempts him over the abyss with her lips. When he remains reluctant above her she pulls away, a perfect pout upon her lush lips and a her eyebrows knotted together in a frown. "Which is why I can't work out why I can't force you to acquiesce to me." He chuckles as she balls her hands into little fists and pushes them against his chest like a little girl having a tantrum.

"I won't lie to you, my dear. I hope it will be of some comfort for you to know that it is taking every ounce of self control I have to refrain from taking you right here."

"Then why won't you?"

"Because it would ruin my plan. And you deserve better than that. I want to worship my darling wife as she deserves to be worshipped, not on my jacket as the day draws to a close." She bites her lip as she digests his words. They come as somewhat a relieve to her, he does want her but he wishes to respect her. She blushes as she thinks of the nightwear she had purchased in his absence, she doesn't doubt it will result in the end of his control. He removes himself from above her and lays himself back on the grass beside her.

"I appreciate your worry for my modesty my love. But, will you hold me, I'm cold." He shuffles to sit next to her and pulls her onto his lap before taking the jacket from the ground and draping it over her shoulders. He wraps an arm slowly around her and kisses her hair as she leans her back against his chest; a loving warmth consuming him.

He can tell by the height of the sun in the sky that it won't be long before his little plan unfolds, he only hopes the sky will alight as it usually does. They sit in comfortable silence; she watches the last birds flying over the treetops and he gazes at the horizon waiting for the light show. The birds seem to still as the sun descends.

"Look at the sky Cora." The sunset had always been a favourite of hers, she didn't need Robert to tell her this was her surprise. The blue turns strikingly to daffodil yellow before it merges seamlessly to orange and then the fierce red burning for all the passion in the world. As quickly as the colours arrived they dance beyond the horizon and out of sight. At the loss of the sun she shivers and his arm wraps more tightly around her.

"That was beautiful darling. Thank you."

"It was not quite as beautiful as you though." He kisses her waiting lips before they stand and stroll leisurely back to the house, both their thoughts on how wonderful it is to have the other back beside them.


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Rated K+

This one is set after Rose's ball in the CS special, when she opens with the Prince. Just a note to say Cora thinks about a Prince in this chapter and for those of you that haven't read my story To Watch A Future Unfurl, the Prince mentioned is Prince Christian Victor, he was the son of Princess Helena and grandson of Queen Victoria. He sadly died in the Boer War and I wanted to honour him in my other story and I have done so again here. He was essentially one of Cora's suitors. Thinking about it, I think he came up in a previous chapter of this, I'm sorry if I confused anyone!

On another note, this one was requested by Settees-Under-Siege and happened to mirror a chapter I'd been messing around with for a few weeks! The request was Cobert dancing in their bedroom the night after Rose's ball. Enjoy!

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Cora sits in bed throughly content, if a little nostalgic, very nostalgic. Watching Rose swirl around the ballroom in the arms of a Prince makes her mind reel, what if she'd actually danced in the arms of her Prince all those years ago, would that have changed the course of her life? It is in this nostalgic recollections that Robert finds her.

"Congratulations on a beautiful ball my dear, you did Rose proud." He dumps his dressing gown over the chair and climbs into the bed beside her, pushing the numerous layers of unnecessary bedding to one side.

"Thank you darling." He kisses her gently on the cheek realising she seems a little distant, tiredness he muses, she must be shattered. And yet, he thinks, as he moves to extinguish the lamp, she was so happy only half an hour ago. He turns to face her again and finds her still with the dreamy gaze she wore when he entered.

"Is something the matter?" Cora had rather hoped he hadn't noticed, it seemed she'd got away with it when he'd reached for the light.

"No. I was just thinking." Robert almost growls that he knows that. He thinks she's about to elaborate but then her mouth closes again and she doesn't. But, from experience he knows it's best to have everything out in the open, sometimes when you're worried about something another person throws new light on it.

"About...?" She rather hoped he wasn't going to press her, but she knows she should have known better. She's not sure why it bothers her to talk out loud to him about the Prince. Robert knows about him, but it's strange she thinks, to never have contemplated life with him until this point, am I bored of my marriage? No, she knows she's not, she loves Robert, adores her girls, she even finds amusement in her mother-in-law, but she supposes ever human being will always wonder at 'what if...'

"My ball, all those years ago, Rose...the Prince." She's relieved when she hears him laugh out loud.

"I don't think you're going to make a match between Rose and the Prince. As much as I hate to say it, he's more likely to take you as his mistress." Cora now laughs, his mind does jump to some strange conclusions.

"No, you quite mistake me. I only meant it reminded me of my season."

"Yes, I see. The Prince and his fascination with Rose reminded you of your encounters with Prince Christian, although, if memory serves you didn't open your debut ball with a Prince." She snuggles against his side, draping an arm over his body. It's at that moment that Cora realises all her thoughts from the last few minutes are pointless, in all the important things she found her man. And she knows that her 'what ifs' would have been far greater if she'd married the Prince.

"You're wrong again, on both accounts. Firstly, I did open my debut ball with my Prince. And my musing was over whether Rose will find her true Prince. The man who will make her tingle all over by merely walking into a room."

"I didn't know Prince Christian had this effect on you." She rolls her eyes, why is he such a tease?

"He didn't, as you know full well. I meant you, my true Prince. I want Rose to be as happy with her choice of husband as I've been. Upon which point I would like to make a request," she feels his stare on her as she hops from the bed and makes a perfect twirl into the open space of their big bedroom in Grantham house, "dance with me." He grins as she reaches her arms out to him and when he scrambles across the sheets and almost trips as he alights from the bed Cora hears the tiny giggle that echoes from her throat around the room. A second later his arm is around her waist, the other clasping her hand, which he pulls immediately to his chest. Their already close stance is made more intimate when he leans down and hums a waltz in her ear. She rests her head against his shoulder as he seemingly whirls her faster and faster around the room. Her nightdress swirls at her ankles and she's not unaware of the way Robert's hand is slowly bunching the fabric beneath the hand that still caresses her waist. She doesn't comment, it has been some weeks, when they were back at Downton, since they had last done anything more than shared a few chaste kisses and she was not going to deny him the pleasure of intimacy when she craved it as well. They had danced earlier at the ball, in the huge ballroom downstairs, the eyes of the congregation upon them but the this, this was better, not just because the was held intimately against him but because they were themselves, neither having to pretend to be the perfect host or hostess. They were just a pair of lovers dancing to a very quiet waltz in their night clothes, she was stood before him as plain as she could be, and it didn't bother her.

Robert clutches her to him, desperate to give her whatever she wants to lift her from the gloom she was in moments before. It's lovely, he marvels to be able to dance with her so close to him, it's a luxury society deprives from him. Not only is the sensation of dancing with Cora always nice, but when they are alone and dressed so scarcely, as they are now, he feels he can be himself. He's knows she won't judge him for what she says as other people that one has to dance with at these balls do. He doesn't notice how the fabric of her nightdress is bundling in his hand, all he focuses on is the waltz, the tune he hums beside her ear and the smell of her lavender perfume that keeps him rooted beside her, the smell that burns at his nostrils and that he doesn't want to leave behind. He notes that she takes a breath, a deep breath and he chuckles inwardly, he'd heard those breaths before when she was either thinking about being intimate with him, or was being so. He leans a little closer to her and seizes his melody, when she continues to sway he knows just how far away she is, lost in her own world.

"Rose doesn't have a large enough dowry to attract a man like me though. Does she?" She moves her head from his shoulder as her mind, that was totally lost in the rhythmic melody he was humming, is thrown into confusion. She knows her eyebrows have knitted together as she looks up at him, but if he notices he chooses to wait for her to figure out what on earth he is trying to say. When her mind finally makes the connection with the conversation she thought they'd finshed ten minutes ago she blushes and nods. "And, if I'm really honest, she's not even bordering on beautiful enough." She feels his breath tickling over her face and she reaches her hands up to weave in his hair, when she parts her lips in anticipation of his kiss it's his finger that comes to meet them. "Princes, even the real ones, like something new, different, _exotic_. A girl from America with chocolate, bordering on raven, dark hair, porcelain white skin and the most intoxicating blue eyes he's ever seen." She blushes at his praise but before she has time to return the compliment his lips have sought hers, his tongue already evoking sensations in her mouth. When their lips part for a second, both of them rather short of breath, each desperate to fulfil the sensations the other so craves, she whispers quietly in the night air.

"That girl from America fell for the most intoxicating blue eyes she'd ever seen too." His lips trap hers again and they each lose themselves in the extent of the others love.


End file.
